Kel Mitchell recalls Dan Schneider 'yelling' at him in a closet during 'big argument' on All That set

Kel Mitchell is discussing a negative experience he had with former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider.

In an interview with Keke Palmer on her podcast Baby, This is Keke Palmer, the Good Burger star talked about working with Schneider, who wrote and produced All That and Kenan & Kel. Mitchell said that “the vibe of the show started to change” after All That creator Brian Robbins left the series. “They left us with the head writer, Dan Schneider,” he remembered. “So he’s writing, and me and him kind of bump heads a little bit because of the direction of how the characters were going. So I was just like, ‘Mm, I dunno if I dig this, dig that,’ right?”

Mitchell said that he tried to exert his vision for the show and its characters to the best of his ability — but it was somewhat difficult since he wasn’t officially a producer. “When we would try it my way, we would get the laughs, and the other way, it wasn’t working,” he said. “And so it was a thing of like, ‘Okay Kel, you’re stepping in now knowing producer-mode, you’re stepping into writing mode,’ but at that time, that wasn’t given. And I had a passion for this show, but I’m not the producer of the show, right? And when it was Brian Robbins, it was different — it was just like, we would have those great conversations that were super awesome, and I would understand that. But when he left it was just like, ‘Okay, so now I gotta deal with this.’”

The actor said that tension with Schneider came to a head in a verbal altercation. “I remember me and Dan had a big argument on set. He was like, ‘Let’s go over here to this room right here, in this closet.’ He closed the door and he just took off, you know, just yelling all this wild stuff. At this point I’m 18, 19 at this point.”

Mitchell said that he opted to remove himself from the altercation. “I had a decision to make, you know what I mean?” he said. “I was just like, okay, either we going to fight or either I’m going to leave. And so that’s what I did. I left the situation.”

The comedian said that he was so upset that he asked his parents for advice. “So I called my parents, I called my dad,” he said. “My dad was like, ‘Have you felt disrespected in any type of way? Do I need to I fly out there?' Being the man that I am now, I should’ve let them fly out there. But I just was kinda like, ‘No, no, no, I got it.’”

A rep for Schneider did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.

Schneider has been the subject of significant controversy in the wake of Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, the Investigation Discovery documentary in which numerous former Nickelodeon child stars and employees accuse the producer of verbal abuse, sexual harassment, and fostering a toxic work environment.

Schneider initially apologized for his behavior in a 19-minute response video following the debut of Quiet on Set. "Watching over the past two nights was very difficult," the producer said. "Me facing my past behaviors — some of which are embarrassing and that I regret and I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology."

Later, Schneider filed a lawsuit against the Quiet on Set team, accusing the creators of defamation by suggesting that he is a child predator — which is not an explicit claim that the documentary makes, though it does repeatedly associate him with convicted child abusers.

"In their successful attempt to mislead viewers and increase ratings, they went beyond reporting the truth and falsely implied that I was involved in or facilitated horrific crimes for which actual child predators have been prosecuted and convicted,” Schneider said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly shortly after filing the lawsuit. “I have no objection to anyone highlighting my failures as a boss, but it is wrong to mislead millions of people to the false conclusion that I was in any way involved in heinous acts like those committed by child predators.”

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Mitchell’s former comedy partner Kenan Thompson discussed Schneider with Variety, saying that he didn’t personally witness any of the toxic behavior of which the producer has been accused. “I feel so guilty saying that,” he said. “All those things started happening after our tenure, because, I guess, no one would even dare. It wasn’t that kind of environment. There was no dictatorship about it all. We were all building something and, when you’re building something, I don’t think anybody’s cocky enough to be pulling things behind the curtain.”

Listen to the full conversation between Mitchell and Palmer above.